Affordable Care Act: Updates

The HealthCare.gov website will still be a work in progress beyond the end of the month, Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Tuesday, appearing to soften a promise that the site will be working by then for the vast majority of users. “The 30th of November is not a magic go, no go date. It is a work of constant improvement. We have some very specific things we know we

Bowing to pressure, President Barack Obama on Thursday announced changes to his health care law to give insurance companies the option to keep offering consumers plans that would otherwise be canceled. The administrative changes are good for just one year, though senior administration officials said they could be extended if problems with the law persist. Obama announced the changes at the White House. “This fix won’t solve every problem for

Medicare was signed into law on July 30, 1965, and within a year seniors were receiving coverage. President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act on March 23, 2010, and the uninsured start getting coverage more than three years later on Jan. 1, 2014. Some key dates in the saga of Obama’s signature legislation: March 23, 2010 — Obama signs the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). Democrats hail

Affordable Care Act: Archetype Profiles

A look at the number of active primary care physicians by state, the rate per capita and each state’s ranking nationally, according to a 2011 report by the Association of American Medical Colleges. The doctors represent those who self-reported dealing directly with patients, as opposed to primary care physicians who are teaching, involved in research or doing mostly administrative work. Updated information is expected to be available in November. Total

ESSENTIAL HEALTH BENEFITS Under the law, health insurers must cover 10 essential benefits. This will make health plans more costly, but also more comprehensive. Starting next year, the rules will apply to all plans offered to individuals or through the small-group market to employers with 50 or fewer workers. The essential-benefits requirement does not apply to plans offered by larger employers, which typically offer most of these, already. The covered

Helena Gudger is the type of person health insurance companies need on the books as the federal Affordable Care Act begins to roll out: Young, relatively healthy and hungry for coverage. The 26-year-old Phoenix resident has gone the past four years without health insurance, using clinics and the county hospital for checkups, routine tests and visits to a gynecologist. She pays cash, checks prices and tries to go when doctors